This article is interesting it suggests that rooks are as intelligent as monkeys and that they are able to perform complex puzzles in order to source food. Four birds were given a puzzle with a small basket of worms inside a plastic tube. The worms were out of reach but the birds were also given a piece of straight wire. In each case the rooks bent the wire to make it into a tool and then used it to hook the basket of worms out of the tube. Unlike other animals which can learn how to solve a problem by using trial and error the rooks all solved the problem immediately despite never been shown how to do it. Researchers at Cambridge University believe that these results show that rooks have an intelligence to rival chimpanzees who are also able to craft tools using their hands.

According to this article £300,000 of taxpayers money was spent on research into finding out which kind of water ducks prefer. This hugely important and ground breaking research was carried out by Defra with the aim of making sure that ducks kept on farms are properly treated. During the three year study by Oxford University scientists offered the ducks different types of water including a trough, a pond, a shower and a nipple drinker. It was found that the ducks preferred standing under a shower and that they spent twice as long under the shower as they did in the other water.

According to this article numbers dormice and water voles are starting to recover thanks to some conservation programmes which have been set up to save them. The creatures which used to be common have been threatened by intensive farming techniques, pollution and climate change which have threatened to wipe them out. The decline of the dormouse is mainly due to the loss of hedgerows and meadows which have caused then to halve in numbers in the last 100 years. Water voles are also affected by loss of habitat as well as polluted rivers. These factors have caused a 90 per cent drop in their numbers in a ten year period between 1990 and 2000. As well as working on projects to improve the creatures habitat conservationists have been asking the public to monitor numbers of dormice and provide boxes for them to sleep in. There have also been successful reintroduction programmes of over 600 dormice to 12 counties over the past 16 years. It appears all of these measures combined mean that the furry creatures are starting to make a comeback.

I am used to seeing butterflies in my garden but in the last week have noticed an unusual concentration of painted lady butterflies. The usual butterfly population in my garden tends to consist of a mix of cabbage whites, small and large tortoiseshells, comma and peacock butterflies so I was wondering if there was a reason for this high concentration of painted ladies. This article just might explain it. It suggests that there is a mass migration of the butterflies this year with around 18,000 of them arriving on the north Norfolk coast from North Africa. Apparently the migration began last Thursday when large numbers of the butterflies were found in Dorset but since then they have been spotted pretty much everywhere. If you don’t know what one looks like, there is a picture on the left but chances are you could be seeing quite a lot of them this year.

According to this article a £3 sun lotion from Asda was among the best is a test carried out by Which? The low priced lotion offered a better defence than some other brands which cost three times as much. In the survey 14 products were tested, all of which claimed to offer a protection factor of 15. However, only five of the products actually met this standard. In fact the sun cream from Asda was found to offer a protection level of 24, more than was stated on the bottle. Some the creams which failed to make the standard were sold by Tesco, Marks and Spencer and Wilkinsons. It just goes to show you don’t always have to spend a lot of money to get a good product.

I am always very careful to unplug all the appliances in the kitchen from the wall in case curious paws should accidently turn something on. Until now I thought I was being a little overcautious but if this article is anything to go by, my fears might be justified. Its about a dog who managed to switch the oven on whilst his owners were out causing a fire to start. Luckily the fire was quickly put out and there was only minor damage to the kitchen but it goes to show that unsupervised pets can cause damage.

If there is one thing that Monopoly has taught us its that a bank error in your favour is a good thing. Unfortunately in real life if you find several thousands of pounds in your account then you should tell the bank and give it back or you could be arrested. An Australian couple did just the opposite. On finding that they had received a payment of £4 million from the bank they simply disappeared. The bank has recovered some of the money but the couple still have around £3 million of it. An international search has now been launched for them.

A three year old boy from Australia caused his parents to have quite a shock when he purchased an £8,000 digger on an online auction website. The child had woken up early before his parents and used his mothers laptop where he came across the TradeMe action site. He then purchased the full sized digger. His mother later saw an email from the seller saying 'I think you'll love this digger'." At first she assumed it was a toy digger she had been looking at earlier but later realised the purchase for a full sized digger and had cost her 20,000 Australian dollars. Luckily when she called the seller to explain, he was sympathetic and the digger was later relisted. This is a good reason not to leave your small child alone with a computer.

According to this article if you want to save the planet you should stop eating lamb and drinking beer. Apparently 37lbs of carbon dioxide is generated to produce 2.2lbs of lamb. Producing pork and chicken on the other hand produces much less emissions. Alcoholic drinks also contribute to emissions with the growing and processing of hops producing 1.5 per cent of Britain’s greenhouse gases. mmm I was thinking of doing both of these things today.

According to this article around half of people who buy their groceries online receive the wrong items. A questionnaire found that 45% had at least one of their items substituted for another product and 15% received something they had not ordered. I have used the Sainsbury’s Online for about five years now and whilst it did used to be fairly unreliable with missed deliveries and broken down vans over the past couple years it has been quite good. I usually receive the correct items with few substitutes and can only ever remember receiving items I haven't ordered once. On that occasion I received a bag of cigarettes (I don’t smoke) but the situation was quickly resolved when I called the store and upon realising the mistake they collected them and brought my bag of shopping in its place.

It could be bad news for tea drinkers if this article is to believed. It suggests that the price of a a cup of tea could rise by as much as 15%. The price rise comes as a combination of rising demand, crop failures and the weak pound. It could mean that leading brands such as PG Tips will increase their prices as much as 50p on a pack of 160 tea bags. Unilever which makes PG Tips has said that it can no longer absorb the extra cost of making tea bags due to increases in commodity costs and that it will need to pass the rises onto consumers.

This is interesting its about a fitness instructor who decided to embark on an experiment to try and help him understand his obese customers. Paul James decided that the best way to try and understand the problems facing obese people who want to lose weight was to become like them. Once super fit he now weighs in at 20 stones after giving up his healthy lifestyle. Previously he weighed 12.5 stone and lived on a diet of lean meat and grill fish with vegetables. His new diet of chocolate, biscuits and fizzy drinks, however, has definitely taken its toll. He started the experiment on New Years Day and on the 1st of July will start a healthy diet and exercise programme to get back in shape. It will be interesting to revisit this story towards the end of year and see how easy he finds it.

Twitter Updates

Disclosure
This blog may accept forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. Links to particular products and services, albeit reflecting the author�s opinion, may be affiliate link and may result in payment to the author. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.